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there’s fires here to burn here and timbers left to learn in this young heart
and honey, please don’t think i don’t miss you, no
don’t think i don’t think of you when we’re apart
because i do, dear, i do
Alex’s birthday falls on a Thursday.
She has no plans, because she has work in the lab to finish, so much work, plus a shadow organization and kidnapped father to track down, but her overloaded work schedule is interrupted when Maggie shows up at the DEO and plants herself in front of the lab equipment Alex needs to use.
“Kara told me it’s your birthday,” she says, arms folded over her chest. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Alex says with a shrug.
“Uh huh,” Maggie says drily, tilting her head to one side and smiling widely at her. “Nice try. Come on, we’re leaving.”
“I need to--”
“Take a night off,” Maggie says. “That’s what you need to do.” Her hands curve around Alex’s hips, settling familiarly just above the belt holding her sidearm, and she pulls Alex squarely in front of her. Alex glares over Maggie’s shoulder at the DEO agents who are gratuitously winking and giving her thumbs ups through the windows to her lab. “Let me take you out to dinner, okay? Please?”
She does the thing that she does, smiling that smile that Alex can never say no to, the one with the dimples and the big wide eyes, and Alex groans.
Maggie smiles even wider at Alex giving in, fingers flexing on her hip and pulling her in for a kiss. “Come on, then, let’s get out of here.”
“Can I finish--”
“Nope.”
“Magge--”
“Can’t hear you.”
“But I just need to save--”
“All I hear is white noise.”
Apparently, Maggie knowing about Kara being Supergirl and the two of them trusting each other is terrible for Alex, because they’ve colluded to throw her a surprise birthday party.
They wind up at a restaurant far nicer than their usual fare, one where the white tablecloths and pressed white shirts on the waitstaff stand in stark contrast to Alex’s dull black DEO gear. There’s no one else there except for their party, Kara beaming at her and Maggie and Eliza at her side. Her mother is wearing a party hat. Somehow.
“How did you-- what is this place?”
“I called in a favor,” Kara says, waving her hand dismissively before yanking Alex up into a hug and nearly crushing her spine. “Happy birthday!”
“Cat Grant?” Alex wheezes out.
“Lena, actually,” Kara says as she settles Alex back on her feet.
“Please stop conspiring with billionaires,” Alex mutters. She finds Maggie’s hand automatically, pulling her closer to her side. “Also you both suck.”
“Normally you like that about me,” Maggie says into her ear, and Alex flushes bright red as Kara slaps her hands over her ears and whisper-shouts “ Oh my God I didn’t need to know that!” at Maggie.
“Oh my God,” Alex mutters. Maggie smirks at her and kisses her, short and easy, and pulls at Alex’s hand so they can go say hi to Eliza.
Alex follows after Maggie, trailing along and accepting the whiskey that Winn hands her as she passes by, wondering when her girlfriend started making plans with her mother for her birthday.
“Thanks for getting her out of the office,” Eliza says as she hugs Maggie.
Alex glares at them both over the rim of her whiskey glass, swallowing half of it in one go. She smiles in spite of herself when her mother pulls her into a tight hug. Maybe birthdays aren’t that bad.
The party winds down with James leaving first to handle a CatCo emergency, then Winn, then J’onn. Eliza claims travel exhaustion and leaves for her hotel room, and Kara flies off supposedly to go to bed, but likely to go thank Lena for the restaurant favor if Alex knows anything about her sister. It’s past midnight when she and Maggie leave, Maggie’s hand in Alex’s back pocket and both of them pleasantly drunk.
They’ve been together long enough that there isn’t much of a discussion as to where to go after the party, and they stumble into Alex’s apartment with Maggie’s hand already pushing past Alex’s belt and into her pants.
Alex falls asleep, eventually, head pillowed on her arms because the pillows are scattered somewhere on the floor, eyes slipping shut to the sight of Maggie watching her with a small, happy smile and Maggie’s hand stroking up and down her back.
In the morning, Alex wakes up long after her alarm should have gone off. Maggie is still dead asleep, snoring almost silently and one hand curled around Alex’s wrist, and Alex doesn’t move for the longest time, measuring her breaths against Maggie’s.
There’s a text from Kara telling her that J’onn ordered her to take the day off, and Alex rolls her eyes. She stretches, careful to keep from jostling Maggie, and slides out of bed in search of coffee.
She trips over one of Maggie’s boots in the kitchen, and both of their jackets and Alex’s shirt are scattered around on the floor. She steps over the clothes and heads for the coffee, missing at first the boxes sitting on her counter.
The coffee takes forever to brew, not least because Alex probably slowed it by glaring into the coffee pot until it finished. It’s not until she has a cup of coffee and settles at one of the stools at the counter that she notices the trio of boxes sitting there, two wrapped messily and one unadorned.
Alex pulls at the wrapping paper on the two wrapped gifts, so clearly from her sister, revealing a book she’s been meaning to read and a pair of boots that Kara had stolen from her over a year ago. The last box, unwrapped and plain black, sits innocently in front of her, and she stares at it for a long moment, considering if she should shoot it or call the bomb squad, blinking twice before reaching out and poking at it. It’s cardboard, and seems too light to be anything explosive, and she takes a long sip of coffee as she appraises it. She prods at it, rotating it in a circle in front of her. There’s silver writing on one side, the Japanese characters foreign to her, and she frowns at it.
Maggie shuffles out of the bedroom in her underwear, one of Alex’s sweatshirts in hand, and Alex stares at her dumbly for a moment, forgetting about the box.
“Coffee?”
Alex points at the coffee maker, settling more comfortably on the chair and watching, chin in hand, as Maggie moves through the familiar motions of pulling a mug from Alex’s dishwasher and pouring a cup that’s really half milk and a quarter sugar and a quarter coffee.
“What’s in the box?” Maggie says, taking a seat next to Alex and kissing her cheek.
“Dunno,” Alex says with a shrug. “I’m at least 95% sure it’s not a bomb, so I’m guessing birthday present.”
“Only 95%? Don’t know how I feel about that margin of error, Agent Danvers,” Maggie says. She reaches out and picks up the box, turning it in her hands. She pauses on the writing on one side. “Oh, I know what this is.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, it’s definitely a birthday present.”
“From you?”
“Babe, please, your birthday present is those bruises on your wrists,” Maggie says. She skims her fingers along the tender skin, bruised and a bit raw, on Alex’s wrist, and bites down gently on Alex’s ear. Alex’s whole body shudders and she sucks in a breath.
“Point taken,” she mumbles. “So what is it?”
“Whiskey. Nice whiskey,” Maggie says, handing her the box. Alex raises an eyebrow at her and slides the lid of the box and sure enough, there’s a bottle of whiskey settled inside it.
“Who’s it from?” Maggie pokes at her side, propping her chin on Alex’s shoulder. “Is there a note?”
“Doesn’t look like it.” Alex settles the bottle on the calendar and sorts through the packing material in the box. There’s no indication of who it came from.
“Do I need to be on guard for someone trying to steal you away?”
“Oh, please,” Alex grumbles. “Rude.”
“Just checking,” Maggie says. She kisses Alex’s cheek, loud and sloppy. “You’re a catch, Danvers, I’m not going to pretend like girls aren’t likely lining up waiting for you to be single.”
“Yeah, well,” Alex says, abandoning the bottle and box and turning on her stool so she can pull Maggie forward until she’s standing between Alex’s knees. “That’s dumb, because I have the day off and I want to spend it with exactly one person, who happens to be you. So.”
“So charming,” Maggie says, pushing up on her toes to kiss Alex and scraping her fingernails up along Alex’s spine. “And coincidentally enough, I also have the day off. What a crazy random stroke of luck.”
It’s not until midafternoon when Maggie is in the shower that Alex remembers, from her spot laying on her bed and staring at the ceiling lazily, the words “ you’re a catch, Danvers”. She doesn’t move for long seconds, before rolling over and picking up her phone, digging through the encrypted files on it until she finds a phone number she hasn’t used in months.
It rings six times, and she’s about to give up right before someone picks up.
“Hello?”
“Hey,” Alex says quietly. There’s no questioning the voice on the other end, tired and familiar, and one side of her mouth hitches up into the beginning of a smile. “So, someone sent me what looks like a very nice bottle of Japanese whiskey for my birthday.”
“Imagine that.”
“Thank you,” Alex says, smiling up towards the ceiling.
“For what, getting you to drink something besides boring Irish shit?”
Alex laughs, shaking her head and smiling in spite of herself at Lucy’s irritation.
“Hopefully Kara got you to take some time off for your birthday,” Lucy says.
“She did,” Alex says. “No plans today except spending time with M--” She cuts herself off, biting down on the inside of her cheek.
“You think you have to pretend that you’re not spending the day with your girlfriend?” Lucy says after a moment. Her slow inhale is audible over the phone, and Alex frowns up at the ceiling. “I didn’t send you whiskey because I’m trying to seduce you away, Alex. Just because it’s your birthday and frankly you need to drink better whiskey.”
“Okay,” Alex says quietly. “I just--”
“Be happy, Alex,” Lucy says. “You deserve it.”
“So do you,” Alex says. The other side of the line stays quiet, and in the bathroom, the water shuts off. “You’re being careful, right?”
“Yeah,” Lucy says. The words come out heavy and tired, and Alex rubs at her eyes with one hand. “We’re being careful.”
“Okay,” Alex says quietly. “If you need backup, just call, okay? Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Thank you for the whiskey,” Alex says. Her stomach turns, an undecipherable ache building and pushing up to settle behind her sternum.
“Happy birthday, Alex,” Lucy says. “I’ll check in when we find something actionable.”
Alex hesitates, reaching for words she can’t put into a sentence, and long enough that the line goes dead.
“That Kara?” Maggie asks from the bathroom door.
“No,” Alex says after a moment. “My--friend. She sent the whiskey.”
“Friend, eh?” Maggie tilts her head momentarily, one eyebrow raised, before she starts to towel her hair dry.
“Friend,” Alex says, nodding stubbornly. “Lucy. She used to date James. She’s working on the Cadmus thing from a different angle.”
“Well,” Maggie says. “She has excellent taste in whiskey.” She kisses Alex, hovering over her, and Alex wrinkles her nose as water drips off of Maggie’s hair onto her skin and the bed.
“You’re getting water--”
Maggie pushes her wrists into the mattress and kisses her, swallowing Alex’s words, and Alex kisses her back. Her phone gets lost in the bedsheets and she forgets, caught in the movement of Maggie’s lips and hands but maybe not as quickly as she’d expected, about the whiskey in her kitchen and Lucy’s voice on her phone.
oh, you watch me steady
you watch me with such a quiet sincerity
and you hold me heavy
you hold me like i was born to be held